In its new blog post, Google announced that it will roll out a new version of the Chrome web browser for desktops (Windows/Mac/ChromeOS) in the coming weeks with a refreshed design and new security features. The latest announcement comes on the occasion of Chrome's 15th anniversary.
Starting with the refreshed design, Google is updating Chrome for desktops with the company's Material You design language, offering refreshed icons, new color palettes, and reorganized options in the menu to allow faster access to Chrome extensions, Google Translate, Google Password Manager, and more.
Google is also applying the Material You design language to the Chrome Web Store. According to the company, the new change offers a “fresh” and “modern” interface that makes it “easier to discover helpful extensions.” Unlike the upcoming version of Chrome, the new Chrome Web Store is available to try out a public preview.
Coming to security, Google Safe Browsing in Chrome protects users from visiting dangerous websites by checking every site they visit against a locally stored list of known bad websites, which gets updated every 30 to 60 minutes. However, according to Google, 60% of dangerous sites today exist for less than 10 minutes, and this is where Chrome's current security measures could be insufficient to protect users.
That's why Google is updating the Standard protection mode of Google Safe Browsing to check sites the users visit against Google's list of known bad sites in real-time “without sharing your browsing history with Google.“ According to the company, this security measure could improve protection from malware and phishing threats by 25%. Google says the new security measure will roll out to Chrome in the coming weeks.
